AZTECS JUNIOR GUARD CLEMENTS HELPING TO FUEL WOMEN’S RUN

UNLV at Aztecs (women)

As far back as she can remember, Courtney Clements has been around basketball.

“From the time I could walk, I just remember always having a basketball in my hands,” she said.

Clements is running with the basketball these days, and her play, especially her shooting, has helped coach Beth Burns’ San Diego State women’s team to an impressive 17-5 start, including a Mountain West-leading 7-1.

The Aztecs face the UNLV Lady Rebels today at 2 p.m. in a crucial conference matchup at Viejas Arena. It’s a special “Play4Kay” game to raise breast cancer awareness in honor of former North Carolina State head coach Kay Yow, who lost her battle with the disease in January of 2009.

Clements has improved her play in each of her three playing seasons in college. Over the summer she submitted to a workout regime that had her lifting weights, stretching and then shooting 300 to 400 shots a day before playing in open gym games. She said it was the most intense summer conditioning program she ever had.

Clements leads the Aztecs and the conference in scoring with 16.6 points a game, and she’s third on the team in rebounding with 5.1 boards per game. She has earned Mountain West Conference Player of the Week honors twice.

“All the hard work I put in over the summer is definitely paying off,” Clements said. “But ultimately, I’m only as good as our team plays. I can do all those things, but if we don’t make it to the NCAA Tournament, it will be all for nothing.”

Burns sees a huge difference this year in Clements, who transferred after her freshman season at Arizona when head coach Joan Bonvicini was fired. Clements has improved each season.

“I think Courtney has her own intrinsic motivation to get better,” Burns said. “She’s like a steel trap. If she wants to do something, she’ll show an unrelenting pursuit of it. She has great fundamentals and mechanics. She is a great shooter, but you have to set a great shooter up for her shot. So she’s had to learn an awful lot about the game, how to play with others and how to move without the basketball.”

Clements’ earliest hoop memories go back to accompanying her father, Reggie Fields, who was a standout player at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa before enlisting in the Navy and playing internationally. He coached some successful boys teams in the Santa Ana area when Courtney was a toddler.

Fields and Courtney’s mother, MarJean Clements, recall the early signs that their daughter had something special athletically.

“I thought she’d go into gymnastics, but she hated that,” said MarJean. “By the time she was 8 she was playing football with the boys. She was amazing.”

Clements played quarterback and linebacker in a flag football league against all boys until she was 12 and some of the hits she took scared her mom.

“Football was her first passion,” her father said. “As she got older, basketball became her focus. But she could have played softball. She could have run track.”

Clements prepped at Millikan High in Long Beach, where she was all-everything and teamed with present teammate Kalena Tutt to lead the Rams to a league championship as seniors. They chose different schools out of high school, but now they’re together again.

“I think everything happens for a reason,” Clements said. “I was meant to be here. I was supposed to be here. It was supposed to happen.”

Tutt saw an immediate change in Clements from the last time she’d seen her at Millikan.

“She’s more focused, more of a complete player,” Tutt said. “She facilitates better now and knows when to shoot and when to pass. She has matured a lot.”

Junior center Malia Nahinu says Clements has been an inspiration.

“She’s put in a lot of work, and I see a big difference in how she trains and just works hard every day,” said Nahinu, whose improved play also helped fuel the 13-game winning streak.

Burns sees Clements reaching her full potential next year when she’ll be a fifth-year senior. Clements believes Burns will help her get there, but true to form, she says it has to come from within and through the team concept.

“When you’re in high school, you’re the star player of your team,” she said. “When you come to college, you have a bunch of star players coming together who were the stars of their high school team. At first it’s hard. You’re not the star player anymore. You have to adjust and play with other people. In college, I can be as good as I want to be, but if Chelsea (Hopkins) wasn’t Chelsea, I wouldn’t get open. And if Kiyana (Stamps) wasn’t Kiyana, I wouldn’t get open. There are so many dynamics to a team. It’s just not one person.”